If you’re like so many other American Idol fans across the country, you’re anxiously awaiting the season finale and the crowning of the next American Idol. Start planning your viewing party now! Maybe you can even use your Los Angeles apartment clubhouse if your guest list is extensive. Wherever you are, get your cell phones out and get ready to vote. Then sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Your American Idol Top Pick
Who are you routing for? The San Diego, California native with a rocker’s edge? Or the underdog from Conway, Arkansas? Either way, it will be a nail-biter til then end. If your pick for American Idol didn’t make it to the top 2, don’t fret. Tickets are already on sale for the upcoming American Idol Tour with all of your favorite contestants in addition to Adam Lambert and Kris Allen.

Live Show at the NOKIA Theatre
There’s the red carpet, hot Hollywood celebrities, past Idol finalists and of course the infamous judges. Catch all the American Idol action live from the NOKIA Theatre in Los Angeles. It’s 2 hours that you won’t wanna miss if you’re a true American Idol fan!

Join 40 million Americans and millions more from around the world to celebrate the New Year with the exciting festivities of the Tournament of Roses. In 1890, the first Rose Parade began as a floral festival with a modest parade of flower-covered carriages and after games such as foot races, tug-of-war and sack races.

After 120 years, the Rose Bowl Parade will feature the magnificent floral floats, high-stepping equestrians and spirited marching bands. And, the tug-of-war game is now one of the top football games of the year – the Pasadena Rose Bowl! Whether you watch the events from your Los Angeles apartment or you are privileged enough to see it in person, here is some interesting and helpful information to make your viewing memorable.

120th Rose Bowl Parade

Date: January 1, 2009
Time: 8 AM PST
Theme: Hats Off to Entertainment
Grand Marshall: Cloris Leachman has been an actress on stage, screen and television for 60+ years, a comedian and now even a dancer, and represents the broad world of entertainment.
Rose Queen: Queen Courtney Chou Lee and the six Rose Princesses were selected based upon public speaking ability, poise, academic achievement and community involvement.
Route: Check out the Rose Bowl Parade Route.
Viewing: People can “camp out” on the Parade route starting at noon on December 31. Before midnight you must stay on the curb and after midnight you may move out to the blue line.

You can watch the parade from designated curbside locations along the route for free or buy tickets for grandstand seating by contacting Sharp Seating Company. In addition, the Rose Parade is broadcast live by nine networks: ABC, NBC, HGTV, Tribune, Univision, Telemundo, Travel Channel, Discovery HD Theater, Sky Link TV.

Photo by: ken mccown

Rose Parade Floats

The Rose Parade’s elaborate floats have come a long way from the flower-covered carriages. A few floats are built exclusively by volunteers, but most are built by professional float building companies. Construction begins shortly after the previous year’s Parade is over. The process begins with a specially built chassis covered with a framework of steel and chicken wire. It’s then sprayed with a polyvinyl material, which is then painted in the colors of the flowers to be applied later.

Every inch of the float must be covered with flowers or other natural materials such as leaves, seeds, or bark. After Christmas, volunteer workers, with their hands and clothes covered with glue and petals, attach all the natural materials to the floats. The most delicate flowers are placed in individual vials of water, which are attached one by one. You may volunteer to help build a float or see the floats up close before or after the parade.

Rose Bowl Game

For all the football fans in your Los Angeles apartment, The Granddaddy of Them All®, the 95th Rose Bowl Game will be a match-up between No. 8 Penn State and No. 5 USC. This is always a sold out event, and tickets are very hard to find, but it will be broadcast exclusively on ABC and ESPN radio. And don’t miss the announcement of who will be inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame!

In the weeks leading up to the Tournament of Roses, there are a variety of events for all ages to enjoy. So spend at least part of the New Years Holiday with millions of Americans, as they enjoy the tradition of the Tournament of Roses.

Check out the visitors guide for an exclusive listing of events and information.

If you’re throwing a holiday party this year, there are just some songs you can’t leave off the playlist. Check out some of the favorite sounds of the season below:

1. The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole
2. Joy to the World – Aretha Franklin
3. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee
4. Have a Holly Jolly Christmas – Burl Ives
5. White Christmas – Bing Crosby
6. All I want for Christmas – Mariah Carey
7. Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt
8. Chipmunk Song – The Chipmunks
9. Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms
10. Winter Wonderland – Dolly Parton
11. Silent Night – Kenny G
12. Feliz Navidad – Jose Feliciano
13. Blue Christmas – Elvis Presley
14. Let it Snow! – Lena Horne
15. Home for the Holidays – Perry Como
16. Wonderful Christmastime – Paul McCartney
17. Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Tom Jones
18. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Judy Garland
19. Merry Christmas, Darling – The Carpenters
20. Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer – Gene Autry
21. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Andy Williams

It’s just not the holidays without our favorite Christmas music in the background. If your favorite Christmas song is missing from the list, share it with us in the comments.

This is important to know because many people confuse the word thrifty with shoddy or shabby when in reality the goal of thrift shopping is to be chic on a budget. “Shabby chic” is the name of the game, and poor quality or inferior products are never the objective.

Photo by: Yvonne Eijkenduijn

Freshen up an Old Look

Thrift shopping can be a great way to go about launching a redecorating project on your home. Every penny saved is a penny that can be used for rent, as apartments in Los Angeles are anything but cheap.

With the right state of mind and the right purchases in mind, anyone can find some very unique furniture and great accessories at thrift stores and other secondhand stores around the area. Creating something new out of something old is a great way to save money on apartment decorating. Consider these tips:

1. For the Sofa – Sew a slipcover for your sofa out of leftover fabric, or bulk fabric from the store. A new slipcover can update any old sofa into a fresh piece.

2. Tables – Almost anything can be used as a coffee table with the addition of four legs. Random furniture legs can be found at junkyards and hardware stores and can be easily mounted to a variety of flat surfaces.

3. Additional Seating – An unused coffee table can easily turn into a seating bench with the addition of a few seat cushions.

4. Refurbishing – Old furniture pieces such as chairs, cabinets and armoires can be picked up cheap and sanded down. They can then be stained or painted to match existing furniture.

5. Wall Art – Almost anything can be put on walls for decoration, framed or not. Look for items like antique rugs, decorative sheets and old city maps that make for excellent and interesting wall art.

Photo by: ooh_food

Moving Around

Sometimes, the most thrift way to redecorate an apartment is simply to rearrange a room. It’s surprising how a crowded room can suddenly become open with the shifting of a few pieces of furniture. Always play with and test a few furniture arrangements before starting a new decorating job. It will help to reveal new ways of utilizing your existing furniture and accessories and potentially cut down on your purchases.

In the end, being thrift is a kind of like being a carpenter. Carpenters are told to measure twice, cut once. When you’re thrift you should learn to plan out your purchases ahead of time to cut your costs. Although, when deals do present themselves, you need to be able to jump on them right away.

Photo by: Paul Bence

1. Exercise Your Mind

Teaching yourself a new language, working puzzles, discussing and debating, taking a new route to work or even reading a book will boost your brain power. Just like exercising your body to build up your endurance and strength, exercising your mind by learning new things will strengthen and improve the functioning of unused areas in your brain.

2. Eat Healthy

Eating healthy will keep the functioning of your brain in optimal condition. If you feed your mind junk, the result will be junk. Your mother was right, there is such a thing as brain food. Drink plenty of water and eat fish, vegetables, and fruit. The antioxidants in these foods combined with a balance of lean protein, fats and complex carbs will reduce your risks for cognitive impairment as well as other unhealthy conditions such as diabetes and high cholesterol. Adopt a brain-healthy diet and only bring healthy foods into your home.

3. Take a Walk Down Memory Lane

Get out photo albums or your diary from high school and remember the past. One of the jobs of your brain is to hold memories. Stimulating your brain and remembering things that you thought you had forgotten will help you make new connections, and it just might make you happy to think of the past, and that’s good for your brain, too.

4. Get Physical

Exercise – you’ve tried it and you hate it, or it’s just another thing you can’t fit into your day. However, it’s proven that exercise is good for your physical health. An article on webMD “Train Your Brain With Exercise” says that exercise is good for the mind, too. Those who exercise regularly are happier, think clearer, and are more alert. Learn how to start exercising today to increase your brain fitness.

5. Avoid Stress

A little bit of stress never hurt anyone, but bottling up your anxiety and frustration isn’t good for your physical or mental health. Avoid stress or learn how to deal with it in a healthy way. Talk to someone about your feelings, remove yourself from a situation that could possibly upset you or stress you out, and exercise regularly to release stressful emotions. Everyone deals with stress differently, so if you know someone going through a hard time, be patient and listen.

6. Play or Pick up a Hobby

Playing a sport and knitting are just two activities that stimulate hand-eye coordination in the brain. Find something that you love doing and do it. Playing a team sport not only improves your physical and mental health, but it also helps to build and strengthen relationships. Knitting, sewing, painting, etc., stimulate your brain’s centers for creativity and coordination, and creating something new gives you the satisfaction of accomplishment.

7. Reduce Your Alcohol Intake

Some studies have shown that drinking red wine is healthy. Drinking a glass is ok, but downing the bottle by yourself is not. Alcohol obviously impairs your judgment and brain functioning or else we’d be allowed to drive and operate heavy machinery under the influence. Getting drunk damages cells in the brain, and it blocks your body from absorbing vitamin B12, important for maintaining normal brain functioning.

These are just a few ways to increase your brain power. Anything that gets you out of your TV coma state and makes you think or work is stimulating your brain. Take care of your body and your brain by exercising and eating right to reduce your risks of cognitive impairment and early onset dementia.

Photo by: Joe M500

Tiny Toms/Pinecone Turkey

The Pinecone Turkey is probably the least expensive of Thanksgiving crafts. Hopefully you can find the pinecones outside and purchase the other five items.

• Yellow and red felt
• Tacky glue
• Googly eyes
• Brown pom-poms
• Pinecones
• Pipe cleaners

1. For each turkey, cut out a yellow beak and a red wattle from felt. Then glue the beak, wattle, and a pair of googly eyes onto a pom-pom to create the turkey’s head.
2. Glue the pom-pom head to the tip of a pinecone. Allow the glue to dry.
3. Wrap a pipe cleaner around the middle of the turkey’s cone body, starting from the top and twisting it together a few times on the underside. Separate the ends of the pipe cleaner (below the twists) and bend each tip into a 3-toed foot.
4. For the turkey’s tail, individually wrap 3 or 4 pipe cleaners around the back of the pinecone, starting from the underside and twisting them together a few times on the top of the pinecone to secure them. Then loop both ends of each pipe cleaner to shape tail feathers.

Craft Stick Turkey Greeter

If you are looking for easy craft ideas, you’ll like this one. When you’re done you can poke the Craft Stick Turkey Greeter into an upside-down paper cup or hang it on the edge of a flower pot outside your Los Angeles home.

• 10 jumbo craft sticks
• 2 medium wiggle eyes
• Miniature craft stick
• Small scrap of paper
• Sharpie marker
• Felt (white, black, goldenrod, and red)
• Acrylic paint (brown, orange, yellow, and red)
• Scissors
• Hot glue or white craft glue

1. Paint the jumbo craft sticks: four brown, two yellow, two red and one orange. Leave one unpainted.
2. Cut one-half an egg shape (body) from the goldenrod felt, approximately 2 1/2 x 3 inches.
3. Cut a small elongated triangle from the goldenrod felt for the beak.
4. From red felt, cut an elongated heart shape, about one-inch long.
5. From black felt, cut a simple top hat and a small rectangle for the buckle.
6. From the white felt, cut a small rectangle for the buckle a little bit larger than the black one.
7. Lay the plain jumbo craft stick on the table. This will be your base stick.
8. Starting from the right, glue craft sticks into a fan shape, stacking one on top of the other as you go. Our pattern goes brown, yellow, red, brown, yellow, red, orange, brown.
9. You should have one brown craft stick left over. This is your turkey’s body. Glue it straight up and down onto the middle of the fan shape.
10. Glue goldenrod body in place. Next, glue the gobbler (red heart) just above the top of the body.
11. Glue the beak in place just above the gobbler.
12. Glue wiggle eyes above the beak.
13. Glue hat onto top of head, then glue white rectangle on hat and black rectangle onto the white one, creating the buckle.
14. Write “Happy Thanksgiving” on a small piece of paper or construction paper. Glue to miniature craft stick, then glue craft stick to body.
15. Allow to dry completely.

Tips:

• If this is a class project, break it into steps. Paint one day, cut another, glue the next.
• Some craft stores carry packages of colored craft sticks.
• Put a fairly heavy rock in the center of a paper plate. Glue an upside down paper cup to over the top of the rock. When dry, insert the craft stick into the top of the cup for a fun Turkey Greeter holder.
• Alternatively, you can use construction paper for the feathers so that your turkey lays flat. Use the “sign” for each guest’s name and use as place holders for dinner.

Turkey Napkin Rings

Turkey Napkin Rings are the perfect item for Thanksgiving dinner tables. Kids will be so proud when they set the table with napkin holders they created themselves.

• Flat wooden craft spoons
• Tempera or acrylic paints
• Paper towel tube
• Scissors
• Orange pipe cleaners
• Black marker
• Tacky glue
• Red felt

1. Five craft spoons are required for each ring. Using tempera paint, color one of them yellow for the turkey’s head, the others, a variety of colors (they’ll be used for tail feathers).
2. For the turkey’s body, cut a 2-inch section from a cardboard paper towel tube and paint it brown.
3. From orange pipe cleaners, shape a pair of short legs with three-toed turkey feet. Fit the legs through small holes in the cardboard tube, bending the tips inside the tube to secure them.
4. Use a marker to draw eyes on the face and use tacky glue to attach a red felt wattle.
5. Finally, glue the head to the front of the body and the tail feathers to the back.

Turkey Wreath

The Turkey Wreath is fun turkey craft to do by yourself or with a group. If you are doing it with a group, each person can write something they are thankful for on one of the strips of construction paper before making it into a loop.

• Ring of cardboard (empty cereal boxes work wonderfully)
• Construction paper (red, orange and yellow)
• Scissors
• Glue

1. Trace a small plate and a large plate onto a piece of old cardboard.
2. Empty cereal boxes or frozen dinner boxes work well
3. It doesn’t matter if you go over the folds of the cardboard
4. Cut a small strip of cardboard and glue it onto the back of the ring over any folds in the cardboard.
5. This will reinforce the ring.
6. Cut strips of construction paper (about 1 1/2 inches by 4 inches)
7. Glue the strips into rolls (like making a paper chain)
8. Glue the rolls of construction paper onto the wreath. We made a red, orange and yellow pattern, but you can do it however you wish.
9. Trace a child’s footprint onto a piece of white paper.
10. Color this brown (it will be the turkey’s head)
11. Cut out a teardrop shape and color orange (it will be the turkey’s beak)
12. Cut out two ovals and put eyeballs in them
13. Cut out a wobbler from red paper
14. Fold a piece of orange construction paper in half and cut out a foot shape (this will make two identical feet. Or Use the template pieces provided (on the the dltk-holidays website) for the face and feet.
15. Glue the feet to the back of the wreath.
16. Glue the footprint body to the front of the wreath
17. Glue the face to the body and hang up your wreath.

Clay Pot Turkey

Make a Clay Pot Turkey as a fantastic table decoration or gift for your Thanksgiving hostess.

• One 1-1/2″ Diameter Wooden Ball
• One 2-1/4″ Diameter Clay Pot
• 3 or 4 Feathers
• 6″ Ribbon
• Button
• 6″ Raffia
• Tacky Glue
• Black Finetip Marker
• Small and Large Paintbrushes
• Acrylic Paints in Brown, Tan, Mustard Yellow, Red, and Rose
• Clear Coat Spray

1. For Body: Place newspaper down on work surface. Turn clay pot over and glue wooden ball to bottom of pot. When glue is dry, use large paint brush to paint entire the outside of the clay pot and the entire wooden ball with brown paint. Let dry and apply a second coat. When dry, use large paint brush to fleck on spots of tan paint for effect. This does not have to be perfect! Using small paint brush, paint on feet and beak, use the photo as a guide if needed.

2. For Head: Use small paintbrush to paint on the gobbler in red. Dab large paintbrush or stencil dotter in rose paint. Dab onto newspaper or paper towel until all excess paint is removed. Gently dab onto “cheeks” of turkey’s face. With the black fine tip marker, drawn on eyes and dot nostrils onto beak. Spray entire surface with clear coat.

3. Finishing Touches: Glue miniature bow tie in place, or fashion a simple bow out of ribbon and glue in place. Trim excess to suit your tastes. Tie a piece of jute or raffia through the holes of the green button. Tie a bow and trim excess. Glue button to the body below the bowtie. Glue feathers to the back so that they stick up above the back of the turkey’s head.

Photo by: terraplanner

23 Facts About LAX

LAX is the primary airport serving Los Angeles, California, the second-most populated metropolitan area of the United States.

LAX is located in southwestern Los Angeles in the Westchester neighborhood, 16 miles from downtown.

LAX is the fifth busiest airport in the world, with direct flights to North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East.

LAX is the 2nd busiest airport in the United States by international passenger traffic.

In 2007, 61,895,548 passengers traveled through LAX.

LAX is a major hub for both United Airlines and Alaska Airlines, and a focus city for American Airlines and Southwest.

Photo by: John Ong

This Los Angeles airport serves as a base for the United States Coast Guard Air Station.

LAX occupies 3,500 acres of the city on the Pacific coast.

Previously, airports used a two-letter abbreviation but with the rapid growth in the aviation industry, the designations expanded to three letters and LA became LAX. The letter X does not have any specific meaning.

In 1991, 34 passengers died at LAX when an incoming US Air Boeing 737 collided with a smaller SkyWest Metroliner commuter plane.

LAX handles more “origin and destination” (non-connecting) passengers than any other airport in the world.

You can drive to LAX by taking the Century Boulevard exit (and several more northern exits) on Interstate 405 or the Sepulveda Boulevard exit on Interstate 105.

In the year 2000, Al-Qaeda attempted to bomb LAX during the millennium holiday. Ahmed Ressam was captured in Port Angeles, Washington, with a cache of explosives in the trunk of his rented car.

The LAX site has been used as a general aviation field since 1928.

During World War II, LAX was used for military flights.

Los Angeles employs about 158,000 people specifically related to the airport’s business. One in 20 jobs in Southern California is attributed to LAX operations.

The Encounter Restaurant is the center piece of LAX, located 70 feet above the ground, in the center of the historic Theme Building complex. The restaurant is topped by an observation deck and has great views of airplanes flying over top.

Photo by: tomeppy

There are more than 22,000 parking spaces near LAX.

LAX has about 1,000 cargo flights each day.

LAX has four parallel runways and a 277-foot control tower designed to service those runways.

In 2007, a runway incursion occurred between West Jet Flight 900 and Northwest Airlines Flight 180, with the aircraft coming within 37 feet of each other. The planes were carrying a combined total of 296 people, none were injured.

LAX is included in a song called ‘LAX to O’Hare’ by the band ‘The Academy Is…’.

LAX has been the filming site of many Hollywood movies and the prime time television drama ‘LAX’.

If you’ve been to the eBay web site, you’ve surely heard of Paypal, a site that allows online auction winners to pay auction sellers instantly. But have you heard of BidNapper, FatFingers or Payloadz? Here’s some info on what you can do on those sites, all from the convenience of your Los Angeles home.

Photo by: Cheon Fong Liew

BidNapper

BidNapper.com is an auction sniper. It puts in last-minute bids on your behalf, increasing your chances of winning. It also helps keeps the price of the item you want low because you won’t have to put in your bid hours, or days, early. When you use BidNapper, it keeps your bid private, so nobody else knows what your bid amount is.

Bidnapper is synchronized precisely with eBay’s clock and is continuously monitoring the connection between their servers and eBay. When the time to bid arrives, Bidnapper submits your bid. If you want to use this eBay sniper, you can get a free 15-day trial on their web site. After that, prices start at $7.99 per month.

FatFingers

Often times an eBay seller mistakenly misspells the name of an item he or she is selling. When buyers search the eBay site, the item does not come up in the search, due to the misspelling. FatFingers.com allows you to capitalize on a seller’s error. It searches and finds spelling mistakes, often giving you the chance to be the lone bidder on an item.

Photo by: Judy Baxter

Payloadz

If you like to sell on eBay, Payloadz may be useful to you. This web site helps you sell downloadable items such as software, eBooks, music, movies, digital art, manuals, articles, certificates, forms, files, and anything else that can be downloaded. Payloadz delivers sellers’ products to buyers instantly, using PayPal’s online payment system and Google Checkout.

eBay has recently relaxed restrictions on selling downloadable items. Some downloads that are now permissible include MP3 files of an original song, written and recorded by the seller, an eBook of recipes or computer software created by the seller.

Sellers can choose to list products directly from the Payloadz web site and have the company handle all the listing duties or sellers can sell directly from their own eBay accounts using the PayLoadz service.

Photo By: Jblyberg

Your Cell Phone Beckons You From Across The Room

For many people, missing a text message, a phone call, or an email is not acceptable. A flashing indicator light just cannot be ignored. In professional situations, it’s understandable if you have to answer your cell phone during the day. But for many jobs, this is not the case. You don’t have to be available 24 hours a day just because you own a cell phone.

You Don’t Know The Last Time You Turned It Off

Is your phone on when you go to the movies, to church, to dinner with friends? Most of us don’t ever actually turn the phone off and there doesn’t seem to be any reason not to leave it on. But you might be a cell phone addict if the thought of turning it off for an hour or two makes you anxious.

Photo By: Tantek

You Feel Lost During The Day If You Leave It At Home

If you leave your cell phone at home in your Los Angeles apartment, do you have to go back and get it? Can you make it through an entire day without it?

You Have Landline Service At Your Apartment Just For The Internet

Or maybe you don’t even have a landline, after all you can access the internet from your mobile phone.

Photo By: Moriza

You Drive While Texting, Shower While Texting, or [insert something ridiculous here] While Texting

Obviously, some of these scenarios are extremely dangerous. Driving while texting can impair drivers as much as, if not more than, driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

You Don’t Know Anyone’s Phone Number

Some of us depend on our cell phonebooks because they contain contact information for the most important people in our lives. Do you know the phone number for your child’s daycare provider, your best friend’s work phone number, or your mom’s home phone number?

There are definitely many reasons why the cellular phone is a great little piece of technology. Among other things, they’re portable computers and cameras. My favorite feature is the cell phone GPS capability. I’ll never get lost as long as I have my sidekick. But, being addicted to this mobile device can be a double-edged sword, negatively affecting other areas of your life. Are you a cell phone addict? Why not try turning it off for a couple hours today?

Owning a pet is a big commitment of time, money and freedom. There are many reasons why some people do not or cannot own a pet. For some people it may be their lack of finances. For others it may be that their Los Angeles apartment’s pet policy is less than liberal. Sometimes it’s just that their nomadic nature compels them to stay away from pet ownership. While it can seem unfortunate when circumstances prevent an animal lover from owning pets themselves, it is actually golden opportunity to enjoy the company of animals through volunteerism.

Helping Way #1:

Become foster parents for pets. There are a number of non-profit animal shelter organizations in Los Angeles where people are able to sign up to be pet foster parents. This is a great help to those pets who need a temporary home while the shelter searches for permanent home. Among these organizations is the Much Love Animal Shelter in Los Angeles. Find out about their foster program at http://www.muchlove.org/foster.htm.

Helping Way #2:

Volunteer for animal advocate organization. Animal Advocates, the non-profit animal rescue and education organization out of Santa Monica is looking for your help. They rescue all sorts of natural wildlife and are always looking for volunteers to assist their wildlife rehabilitators. More information available at http://www.animaladvocates.us/help.htm.

Helping Way #3:

Volunteer at LA Animal Services. The LA Animal Services is constantly looking for volunteers to help with the animals they save from the streets. Volunteers perform a number of duties in the animal care facility and in with off-site adoption. Volunteers can choose their own hours from a flexible schedule and there is an orientation session for new help. For more information go to the LA Animal Services webpage at http://www.laanimalservices.com/index.htm.

Helping Way #4:

Work with PETA to protect animals. The PETA organization, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has a long history of outspoken animal support in America. Through their websites people can become members of PETA and donate money and time to help protect animals from abuse, exploitation and inhumane treatment. Find out about their cause and how you can help, go to http://www.peta.org/.

Helping Way #5:

Sponsor an animal at a rescue organization. If you don’t have the time or ability to volunteer, the next best thing is to be a sponsor. Animal rescue organization North Shore Animal League of America is the biggest no-kill animal rescue organization in the world. When you sponsor a pet through them you provide housing, food and medical attention for a special dog or cat. Find more information go to http://www.nsalamerica.org/sponsor to sign up to be pet foster parents.